


To Attica!

by Skysquid22



Category: Law & Order: SVU
Genre: Fluff, Hotels, Like what else am I supposed to tag this?, M/M, Mild Rolivia, Pre-Barisi, Pre-Relationship, Road Trip, sleeping
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-30
Updated: 2017-06-30
Packaged: 2018-11-21 13:43:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,935
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11358681
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Skysquid22/pseuds/Skysquid22
Summary: Taken from the Prompt: Imagine your OTP sleeping in the backseat of a car while their friend is driving.





	To Attica!

**Author's Note:**

  * For [LikeABrokenClock](https://archiveofourown.org/users/LikeABrokenClock/gifts).



> Dear LikeABrokenClock, 
> 
> I stole your head canon from Plain and Simple. Hope you don't mind... I really like it so I featured it in this story. 
> 
>  
> 
> I hope you guys enjoy this story, I have plans for an AU up next. Love comments even if I don't reply to them, and I love some feedback as well. Thanks for reading!

It was a long drive to Attica. And it probably would’ve been a better idea to go the next day, but if they left soon as possible they would get there late at night, wake up the next morning to a mess of CO’s and inmates to interview and hash out potential plea deals. It was simply faster. And Benson can be very determined and persuasive. 

Thus, Olivia ended up in a car with Rollins as shotgun, giving directions, and Carisi and Barba in the back seat. 

And good god were the two of them both back seat drivers. Carisi didn’t say a word now because he knew better than to judge his boss’ driving skills. But before, he was constantly bashing on Rollins that he wasn’t paying the speeding ticket, _thank you very much._ Rafael took a snarky, more direct, approach to his back seat driving. Small quips like, _Remember a stop sign means you stop, not slow down a little and go._

And unlike Carisi he didn’t stop after Rollins switched out half way through the drive. The perks of being friends with Benson. As Olivia was making another turn Barba complained, “You know if you turn any faster you might drift into the next lane.” And just as she opened her mouth to return the fire, Rollins was there to put him in his place.

“You know counselor… Liv here has been driving awhile now. Why don’t you take over?” She said coyly with an edge of southern drawl to it.

Barba huffed a laugh and continued to put his hand on his chin to stare out the window. “Not an option, for one, I don’t have a license. And for two I’m colorblind in a way where it’s harder to drive. So---”

_“What?!”_ Carisi half shouts.

Olivia almost crashes the car then just as Carisi immediately apologises. He drops his voice low, to ask, “You’re colorblind? How come we’ve never heard of this before?” Rollins also manages to fully twist her body to look back at him to hear his answer.

He shoots them both a questioning glare. “I… It never came up. I don’t know why you guys are so _outraged_ by this. I don’t like driving, the colorblindness makes it worse so I never bothered with a car or a license.”

This time Rollins asks, “What did you mean by ‘a way where it’s harder to drive’?” She even uses air quotes which gets a amused look from Carisi who finally found his jaw and picked it up from the floor.

Barba sighs and answered stately, “Protanopia. Reds are darker than normal. It won’t prohibit me from driving, but I… do _not_ like driving.” He breathed. 

At last Olivia chimed in. “We’ve known you for years. How did this not come up?”

Now he was just getting frustrated and exasperated. “It just _never_ came up. Also is this 20 questions? I didn’t know I owed it you to tell you this.”

They all went silent for a moment, sponging up their guilt, looking at each other in a way to say sorry. Then, they actually apologized to Barba which he accepted. 

Then after a minute of awkward silence and Olivia driving Rafael said softly, “You technically couldn’t turn there, but alright.”

It earned him an adorable grin and a snort in reply from Carisi. To hide his own smile he looked out the window and into the swath of trees blazing past.

-

Carisi had his turn at driving for a bit, replacing Olivia, and chatted aimlessly with Rollins. About regular topics the two were very familiar with. Carisi’s family and Jesse. Meanwhile in the back seat Barba and Benson carried a conversation on wines, while also eavesdropping on the pair in front. And unknowingly to them, they were also being eavesdropped on as well.

It was calm and relaxing, they rarely ever got a moment like this. The sun was beginning to set and the glow cast them in a soft light, heightening the relaxation of the whole ordeal.

The peace shattered when Barba said to one of Olivia’s many wine suggestions, “I think I had that before, at some kind of gala in Brooklyn. My date brought me a glass and then was promptly swayed by some woman in a blue dress. I never found out who she was and I never saw him again. He just sent an apology text a week later, then I deleted his number. In hindsight it was probably a mistake bringing him there.” He sighed wistfully.

There was a pregnant pause and mental, _Wait..._ from all of them. 

In the stunning silence Barba caught on to what went wrong and started to explain, “Ok, ok, before this turns into exactly what happened when you guys found out I was colorblind… I’m bisexual not gay, and no this isn’t a recent development.”

“Again.” Olivia breathed, “How did this not come up?”

Barba simply shrugged and said, “Never asked...?” He then turned to the front seat. “Any notes from the peanut gallery?”

“No…” Rollins spoke gently. “Just in shock, I guess.” She suddenly shook her head. Carisi then mused, “Man, what else are we gonna learn about you Barba?”

“So far this trip has been fruitful, though not in the way we’ve been thinking.” Rollins added.

“I’ve given enough information for today. Time for you to cough up personal details.”

“Like what, we play, ‘Never Have I Ever’?” Carisi scoffs.

“I’m going veto that now before it gets out of hand.” Liv holds up her hands in a calming gesture. “Rafael. I’m sorry it had to happen like this.”

Barba gives her an odd look, tearing his eyes away from the window. “I had no _plan._ It just came out, it’s fine really. Truthfully I just assumed you knew.” He then glanced back out the window, “How naive of me.”

No one dared to break the quietness that fell after he spoke. There really wasn’t anything to say, though it was a shame to put a sour mood while they were almost there. 

A little while later, after the sun had finally set, but the sky was still light they stopped at a gas station. Olivia took back control of the front seat and Carisi returned to his original spot as well. She would drive the remainder of the trip which was no less than an hour out by now.

Ten minutes later she was traveling down a dark road with nothing but her headlights to show the way. The quiet was unbearable, it was still an awkward kind of quiet and she was determined to fix it. Perhaps not with work or anything too personal. 

So bobbed her head to look at Rollins for a quick moment. She was laying her head against the glass, just watching the outlines of a forest go by. “How’s Jesse?” Amanda turned to the soft voice to her left and smiled at the source. 

“Didn’t hear from earlier? She’s good. Getting a grasp on words---and, at the risk of sounding like a cliche, she grows _so fast._ ” Half murmurs, it’s not exactly necessary to have her voice as low as it is, but the setting forces her to. 

Liv gives a sly smile in return and retorts, “Yeah, I can’t believe what we’ve been through and Noah is still so young. It’s---”

She suddenly stops and Rollins follows her gaze to the rear-view mirror. From her angle she can’t see anything and just looking at Olivia’s face it’s a mixture of shock and happiness. An odd combo so before she can turn around to look Liv says, “Turn slowly, and look.”

Cautiously she turns and sees…

_Oh._

_Oh my god._

Barba and Carisi are both leaning on each other using the middle seat. Barba’s head is tucked under her partner's head and Sonny’s is tucked into Rafael’s hair. With each breath he takes it displaces the the ADA’s coif. One of Barba’s hands had snaked in between them and and resting comfortably on the taller man’s forearm. If he just put his hand little farther down they would be holding hands.

It was adorable. Seeing a hard ass ADA snuggling up to the puppy like detective, it was just… adorable.

“Aww!” Rollins horse whispers. Olivia smiles in return and says devilishly, “Take a picture. Perfect blackmail.”

“Do we even want this much power?” She mumbles with a smirk and complies anyway. However it’s dark and without flash the picture would turn out terribly. She gives it a shot and it’s just a black screen. “The only way this works is if I use flash. Should we risk it?”

Benson scrunches up her nose like she smelled somethin’ awful. “Hmm. Give it a minute.”

Liv’s patience (or reluctance) pays off and after a minute or so Rollins witnesses Barba somehow burry further into Carisi. Another arm finds it’s way to Sonny’s forearm and if it weren't for the seat belts there would be a hundred percent chance that they would be even closer. Is he cold? What caused this?

“Now?”

“Yeah, we are a few minutes out from the hotel. Wanna bunk together so they can figure out their feelings?”

“Definitely,” Amanda drags out her phone and puts it into position. “I’m ready to sleep, I don’t want to hear Carisi talk about Barba until he forcibly falls asleep. And I don’t think you want to handle a crabby Barba the rest of the night so.” A flash of light illuminates the couple and a slightly grainy picture comes out. Better than before. “We are in agreement.”

Sure enough the picture was able to wake them up. One of them anyway. Rollins still can’t see anything since once she saw Barba move a little she shot Olivia a look and leaned back in her seat once more. 

Benson nodded and kept glancing at the rear view mirror to watch them. Carisi was out like a light and Barba woke up just enough to see his surroundings and to remove one of his arms out of the way. He straighten himself out, tried to determine what happened and if the two in front we’re paying attention to them or not, and then maneuvered in a way as to not to disturb Sonny. Rafael look at him with affection before looking out the window once more, sacrificing his left shoulder as a makeshift pillow for Carisi’s head. 

When they arrived he shook it off as, “I didn’t want to be rude and wake him.” Like that’s never stopped him before. Carisi seemed mildly embarrassed and he seemed even more so when the girls kicked them to a room with only one bed. 

(They had a room with two doubles but they took that one, the last one left surprisingly was either the Honeymoon suite or small room with a queen sized bed. They deemed the suite would be a major abuse of their power.)

Both pairs said goodnight, Barba was oddly calm, Carisi still looked like his mom caught him making out with his girlfriend. They had rooms on opposite sides, so as Olivia was unlocking their door Amanda looked out to see Barba much closer with and arm on the small of Sonny’s back. It was hard to tell from this distance but based the on the fact Sonny was no longer shrinking himself down he seemed calmer. Whatever Barba was saying to him it wasn’t making him embarrassed anymore. 

_They would make a cute couple,_ Rollins thought as placed down her bags on one of the beds.


End file.
